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Car Brand Reliability GPAs - 2011

The 2011 Reliability Grade Point Averages and Grades for Lines/Brands of Cars Sold in North America: The Complete Table andthe Top 10 Car Brandsandthe Bottom 10 Car Brands

Photograph of a 2010 Toyota Yaris on 9 August 2011

The Toyota Yaris has a 2011 Auto Reliability GPA of a perfect 4.00 over its 4-year data history (a perfect 4.00 over an 8-year data history, if its predecessor, the Toyota Echo, is included) and has helped the Toyota line place fourth among all automobile lines. See the table and bar graph below.

The Complete Table

This page provides detailed 2011 car brand reliability ratings and car brand reliability rankings. It expresses the car brand reliability ratings and car brand reliability rankings, and makes available brand reliability comparisons and brand reliability contrasts, using the Car Reliability Grade Point Average, or Car Reliability GPA. This car reliability index is valuable as it is an easy-to-understand, but detailed, car reliability measure, and is familiar to many having attended secondary school and nearly all who have received some post-secondary education. The page also employs Car Reliability Grades as a reliability index. This measure of car reliability differences, although less detailed, is valuable as it is familiar to all persons having attended primary school. The updated Car Reliability GPA is an automobile reliability statistic that is obtained from Consumer Reports' car reliability survey data summarized in the reliability tables of (1) Consumer Reports: New Car Buying Guide: 2011, (2) Consumer Reports: Used Car Buying Guide: 2011, and (3) the April 2011 issue of the Consumer Reports magazine.

The Average GPA for each car brand is the average of the Average GPAs of its models. The Average Minimum GPA for each car brand is the average of the Minimum GPAs of its models. The Reliable Two, Toyota Motor Corporation and Honda Motor Company, appear first in the table, because of their rather singular stature; the remaining manufacturers are listed alphabetically.

Letter grades corresponding to Average GPAs and Average Minimum GPAs are determined thusly: A if the GPA is 3.50 to 4.00, B if the GPA is 2.50 to 3.49, C if the GPA is 1.50 to 2.49, D if the GPA is 0.50 to 1.49, and F if the GPA < 0.50.

GPAs for 4 age ranges are given so that the visitor may examine more thoroughly the age range that is of greater interest to him/her, if such there be.

The 2011 Car Reliability Grade Point Averages for Lines/Brands of Cars Sold in North America

ID

Car Maker

Car Brand

Line GPA for 0-to-4 Year Old Vehicles

Line GPA for 2-to-6 Year Old Vehicles

Line GPA for 4-to-8 Year Old Vehicles

Line GPA for 6-to-10 Year Old Vehicles

Average GPA

Grade Based on Average

Minimum GPA

Grade Based on Minimum GPA

Average Number of Model Years of Data

12

Toyota Motor Corporation

Lexus

3.01

3.48

3.70

3.75

3.39

B

3.06

B

6.9

38

Toyota

Toyota

3.10

3.54

3.60

3.65

3.43

B

3.04

B

6.9

43

Toyota

Scion

3.56

3.73

3.56

3.50

3.65

A

3.50

A

4.0

52

Honda Motor Company

Acura

3.55

3.67

3.40

3.38

3.51

A

3.38

B

6.3

67

Honda

Honda

3.27

3.45

3.59

3.39

3.45

B

3.13

B

6.9

80

BMW AG

BMW

1.21

1.80

1.99

1.79

1.37

D

1.07

D

5.5

83

BMW

Mini Cooper

1.63

0.88

0.63

0.67

0.95

D

0.58

D

7.5

93

Chrysler LLC

Jeep

1.10

0.99

1.10

1.19

1.13

D

0.82

D

6.3

102

Chrysler

Chrysler

0.89

1.31

1.36

1.53

1.37

D

0.92

D

5.6

118

Chrysler

Dodge

1.08

1.02

1.16

1.07

1.04

D

0.84

D

5.1

131

Daimler AG

Mercedes-Benz

1.42

1.63

1.88

2.31

1.44

D

1.11

D

4.8

133

Daimler

Smart ForTwo

1.00

0.50

D

0.00

F

2.0

158

Ford Motor Company

Ford

2.29

1.99

2.06

2.08

2.14

C

1.87

C

6.7

166

Ford

Lincoln

1.83

2.12

2.00

1.83

1.83

C

1.57

C

4.7

175

Ford

Mercury

2.19

2.11

2.18

1.67

2.14

C

1.93

C

6.3

186

Ford

Volvo

2.53

2.31

2.09

1.81

2.32

C

1.86

C

4.4

196

General Motors Corporation

Buick

1.83

1.90

1.95

1.78

1.88

C

1.71

C

4.5

203

General Motors

Cadillac

1.02

1.24

1.25

1.33

1.21

D

0.74

D

5.7

229

General Motors

Chevrolet

1.50

1.00

1.08

1.44

1.25

D

0.94

D

6.1

241

General Motors

GMC

1.31

1.01

1.32

1.70

1.27

D

0.92

D

6.3

243

General Motors

Hummer

0.50

0.33

0.42

F

0.33

F

3.0

252

General Motors

Pontiac

1.83

1.57

1.63

1.15

1.50

C

1.22

D

4.6

255

General Motors

Saab

3.25

2.17

1.25

1.13

1.95

C

1.13

D

7.5

262

General Motors

Saturn

1.23

1.13

1.42

1.38

1.13

D

1.00

D

3.7

275

Hyundai Motor Company

Hyundai

2.52

2.47

2.29

1.69

2.38

C

2.05

C

5.5

278

Isuzu Motors Ltd

Isuzu

1.50

1.50

C

1.50

C

2.0

284

Jaguar

Jaguar

1.00

2.00

2.00

1.83

1.46

D

1.42

D

2.3

296

Kia Motors Corporation

Kia

2.41

1.98

1.38

1.04

2.04

C

1.73

C

3.8

300

Land Rover

Land Rover

2.00

1.50

1.00

1.50

C

1.50

C

1.5

314

Mazda Motor Corporation

Mazda

2.35

2.13

2.38

2.14

2.15

C

1.73

C

6.2

321

Mitsubishi Motors Corporation

Mitsubishi

2.83

2.83

2.50

2.35

2.61

B

2.35

C

2.8

331

Nissan Motor Company

Infiniti

3.01

3.21

3.20

2.63

2.89

B

2.67

B

4.4

348

Nissan

Nissan

2.01

1.87

1.84

2.03

1.95

C

1.56

C

6.4

354

Porsche AG

Porsche

2.17

2.58

2.00

1.89

2.23

C

1.75

C

4.5

363

Subaru Division of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd

Subaru

2.85

2.86

2.69

2.15

2.63

B

2.11

C

7.6

366

Suzuki Motor Corporation

Suzuki

2.67

2.50

2.58

B

2.50

B

3.0

377

Volkswagen AG

Audi

1.41

1.37

0.70

1.00

1.14

D

0.86

D

3.7

390

Volkswagen

Volkswagen

1.78

1.21

0.82

1.00

1.29

D

0.83

D

4.1

The following bar graph depicts how much above average or how much below average each brand's 2011 Auto Reliability GPA is.

There are several important points to be noted from the above bar graph. The first is that Ford Motor Company's Mercury and Ford brands are the only brands of the Detroit 3 whose vehicle averages are above average. The second is that the 2010 Car Reliability GPA of the Ford brand exceeds that of the Nissan brand. The third is that the 2011 Car Reliability GPAs of the Hyundai and Kia brands exceed the Reliability GPAs of all of the brands of Chrysler LLC and all of the present and past brands of the General Motors Corporation, and that only one of GM's current brands has a 2011 Car Reliability Grade above a D. The fourth is that the South Korean Hyundai brand is among the Top 10. The fifth is that the only European brand to have a 2011 Car Reliability GPA exceeding 2.00 is the Porsche brand. The sixth is that many more of the brands have a 2011 Car Reliability GPA below 2.00 than above 2.00; this reflects the very high concentration of quality in a small number of brands.

The 2011 Top 10 Car Brands

Next, we list the 10 most reliable car brands. The 2011 Top Ten brands are:

Note that Toyota Motor Corporation's three brands and Honda Motor Company two brands constitute the five best brands. Also note that the difference between the 2011 Car Reliability GPA of Toyota's Lexus brand, fifth most reliable, and the 2010 Car Reliability GPA of Nissan's Infiniti brand, sixth most reliable, is quite sizable. Also note that the difference (0.20) between the 2011 Auto Reliability GPAs of the 9th most reliable brand (Suzuki) and the 10th most reliable (Hyundai) brand is quite sizable.

Note that three of the four brands that General Motors plans to continue marketing are within the Bottom 10.

Disclosure:

Site manager is currently a very small shareholder of Ford Motor Company (2011-08-23). I am not, and have not been, a shareholder of any other motor vehicle manufacturer.

The method of computation of the GPAs is probably familiar to nearly every college, technical school, and high school student. A Grade Point of 4.00 (that is, an A) is given to a Consumer Reports "Much Better Than Average" auto reliability rating, a GP of 3.00 (that is, a B) is given to a CR "Better Than Average" auto reliability rating, a GP of 2.00 (that is, a C) to an "Average" auto reliability rating, a GP of 1.00 (that is, a D) to a "Worse Than Average" auto reliability rating, and a GP of 0.00 (that is, an F) to a "Much Worse Than Average" auto reliability rating. A Grade Point Average (GPA) is an average of the Grade Points and is computed using Microsoft's Average(a:b,[c:d],...) function.

This volume of AutoOnInfo.net’s car guide series offers consumers and researchers an historical summary of the reliability and durability of car and truck brands and examines how these brands have fared in their U.S. market shares. It uses 6-year-old model entries in Consumer Reports’ Used Car to Avoid – also termed Vehicles to Avoid and Worst Cars, Year by Year – and CR’s reliability charts to ascribe quality grades to automobile brands for model-year groups 1985 to 1989, 1990 to 1994, 1995 to 1999, 2000 to 2004, 2005 to 2006, and 1985 to 2006. In addition to ascribing quality grades to each brand, it provides a chart that plots the number of the brand’s 6-year-old model entries in CR’s vehicles to avoid. To examine the effect that a brand’s reliability and durability has had on sales, two or more charts depicting the brand’s U.S. market shares for calendar years 1985 to 2009 are given. These grades and charts and the author’s comments impart an historical perspective that sheds light on the present condition of surviving vehicle lines and their future prospects, individual and institutional shortcomings, and what effect these may have on the U.S.

JB

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